Government going overboard on e-cigarettes

As a recovering nicotine addict, the rising tide of local bans against puffing in public on electronic cigarettes makes me wonder what lawmakers have been smoking.

Clarence Page

As a recovering nicotine addict, the rising tide of local bans against puffing in public on electronic cigarettes makes me wonder what lawmakers have been smoking.

By an overwhelming 45-4 vote last week, Chicago's City Council followed New York, Los Angeles and other cities that have passed or are considering limits on e-cigarettes that banish their use in restaurants, bars and most other indoor public places.

Retailers also are required to sell e-cigarettes from behind the counter so that it's harder for minors to get their hands on them.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered fake cigarettes. They contain no tobacco, require no combustion and, after exhaustive health studies, appear to cause no physical harm - compared to real cigarettes, at least.

You can't even call their use "smoking." Some users call it "vaping" for the vapor the devices create by heating up a liquified nicotine mix. When puffed and exhaled, the white, misty vapor resembles smoke - like your breath on a cold day.

By duplicating the rituals of smoking, the devices are designed to help wean users off the nasty habit.

I understand how that works. Although I am too cheap to buy an e-cig and the nicotine patch didn't work for me, I alternate between nicotine chewing gum and a nonelectric nicotine inhaler prescribed by my doctor.

Unfortunately, I must confess, I am still addicted to nicotine, although through my inhaler and the gum. Don't worry about it, says my doctor, echoing other health experts. Even if the research is still inconclusive on the health risks of nicotine substitutes, anything is better than falling back into the grip of tobacco.

So what's the problem?

Kids.

It is easy to see how protecting impressionable youths from the lethal lure of demon tobacco is going. Nine in 10 start smoking as teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stopping teen smoking is a cause that is tough for politicians to resist, even when the dangers of e-cigs are not entirely clear or present.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel took up former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's crusade against tobacco and other potential health hazards, including e-cigarettes, even if they only look like a health hazard.

How far, Emanuel nobly asked, are elected officials willing to go to protect children from addiction? Well, gee, when you put it that way, what politician is not going switch immediately into a better-safe-than-sorry mode?

Since 2009, when the first e-cigarette bills were introduced, 25 states, the District of Columbia and numerous municipalities, including Evanston, Ill., have passed measures defining and regulating e-cigarettes.

All of those states restrict sales of e-cigarettes to minors and most require identification for in-person and online transactions.

Fine. I am completely in favor of keeping these smoking devices out of the hands of underage users. Our young people have enough dangerous temptations around them.

The percentage of middle and high school students who said they had ever used an e-cigarette more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Many are lured, undoubtedly, by the most important factor in most teenagers' lives: being "cool." Although it's not clear how e-cigs might be a gateway drug to harder stuff, like real cigarettes, the mere possibility is a legitimate cause for concern.

Nevertheless, I ask, how does it protect kids to ban e-cigs in bars, for example, where minors already are prohibited?

What next? Will government come after my nicotine gum and nonelectronic inhaler? If not, will there be a class-action suit by e-cigarette "vapers" claiming unlawful discrimination under the Constitution's equal-protection clause?

By then President Barack Obama might want to join the pushback. He vowed to quit smoking in 2007, passed a sweeping anti-smoking bill in 2009 and more recently has been seen chewing nicotine gum. Some of us feel your pain, Mr. President.